Glashutte Original Sixties Panorama Date Automatic

Deliciously vintage, yet absolutely modern, the new Glashutte Original Sixties Panorama Date (ref. 39-47-06-02-04) successfully delivers everything that one could expect from a contemporary timepiece inspired by the roaring 1960s. With this new device, you get a clean, easily readable dial, as well as a meticulously designed and gorgeously executed self-winding caliber packed into a perfectly sculpted case. All in all, you get a timekeeper that perfectly represents a decade that put a man on the Moon and gave us Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, and Janis Joplin.

This year was a time of updates for many watchmakers, both Swiss and German. Glashutte Original with its refreshed Sixties Panorama Date Automatic model is not an exception here.

Yes, even despite being currently owned by Swiss-based Richemont group (the same investment holding company that also has such legends as IWC, Jaeger-LeCoultre, and Vacheron Constantin under its belt), the East German brand somehow managed to keep a design language of its own.

Easily recognizable and ergonomic, their classic-styled dressy timepieces look like they are worth every penny that the German brand asks for them: a trick, which is not that easy to pull in a world that is overcrowded with luxury brands of different origin desperately fighting for your short attention span.

Still presented in the same stainless steel body 42 millimeters in diameter and just over 12 millimeters high, the watch now sports a more appealing “Midnight Blue” dial. Galvanized and decorated with their traditional sunburst finish, the face of the timekeeper serves as a very nice background for the luminous, slightly curved towards their tips hands, as well as for the applied Arabic numerals and hour markers.

What makes an expensive watch stand out from the rest of “visually similar” timekeepers, is painstaking attention to details. As you can see on the pictures, all elements of the Glashutte Original Sixties Panorama Date are beautifully matched to each other; working together, producing a striking object of art.

Even the pair of co-axial disks of Panorama Date is blended into the layout with their background color perfectly matched to that of the dial (as you can see on the photo below, the indicator is still perfectly visible thanks to the extremely high contrast white paint used to print the digits).

As usual for this brand, all elements of the dial are crafted from white gold, which will allow the watch to better stand the test of time.

I have already mentioned that mechanically the Sixties Panorama Date is identical to previous iterations of the watch. According to official specs, it is still powered by the same Caliber GO 39-47 automatic movement. Made on their own production facilities, the caliber features everything that you can expect from a high-end mechanism made in Glashütte including the signature Glashutte three-quarter plate with stripe finish, swan-neck fine adjustment and, of course a skeletonized 21-carat white gold oscillation weight.

Presented at the beginning of the year during Baselworld 2013 trade show, the watch is already on sale at around €7000.